


Growing Up

by WattStalf



Series: Two Straight Dads [5]
Category: Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: AU, F/M, Gen, Sequel, rape mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-20 03:22:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7388542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WattStalf/pseuds/WattStalf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to My Two Straight Dads.</p><p>Laurie is an adult now, and that means changes for her and her two straight dads. However, there are more changes in store than any of them accounted for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Finally the sequel begins! In this story, Laurie's relationships with Jon and Dan will be touched on more, and she will finally learn the truth about what happened between Eddie and Sally.

“Jon's asked me to live with him,” said Laurie, trying to sound as casual as possible when delivering this bomb to her fathers. It wasn't entirely true; she had been the one to bring it up to Jon, saying that living with her parents was driving her crazy, and he had been open to the idea, just like he seemed to be open to pretty much everything else she wanted to do. “And I think it's a good idea too, so I'm going to be moving out pretty soon.”

“Like hell you are,” said Eddie, without missing a beat. Laurie had to give him some credit; his outbursts regarding her relationship with Jon were happening less and less frequently. He was more likely to respond in a calm manner like that, as if not showing his emotions would help him win the argument.

“Figured you'd say something like that, but it's a little too late. I already agreed, and we've been looking for a place together,” she replied. “After all, I _am_ an adult now. It's about time I got out on my own.”

“You're an adult, sure, but you're only eighteen,” her father argued. “You don't gotta move out just cos you're eighteen.”

“And don't you think you're moving a little too fast?” added Hollis. “Do you really think you're ready to start living with him?”

“We've been together for longer than a year!” she protested. “That seems pretty long to me, and besides, it's not like I'm marrying the guy.”

“No, you're just plannin' on spending every day with him. Cos, ya know, there's _such_ a big difference between marriage and living together.” If Laurie weren't so determined to be right about this, she would have admitted that Eddie had a point, but to do that would be to admit defeat, and she sure as hell was not doing that.

“Anyway, it's not really up for debate,” she went on. “It's happening, and it's happening soon. I just wanted to let you guys know.” Of course, it couldn't actually be that easy, and there were several arguments that followed but, at the end of the day, she _was_ an adult, and she couldn't be swayed, and there was nothing either of her fathers could do to stop her from making the move.

~X~

Packing without any help was taking up a lot of Laurie's time, but she wasn't going to ask either of them for any help and risk another argument breaking out over it. The hardest part, really, was figuring out how to organize things into boxes, and what she should pack first and what she should leave until the last minute. Several times, she had to unpack everything to get something, and then do it all over again, but never once did she try to get any help.

It was when she was taking down her picture frames that she realized something she wanted in her new home that she didn't already have. There were a lot of pictures of her with Eddie and Hollis over the years, but she didn't have a photo of the mother she had never known, and she thought it would be nice to have something like that when she moved in with Jon.

However, she was still avoiding her fathers whenever she could get away with it, and she didn't want to ask them for a picture if she didn't have to. And so, one day, when Eddie was gone somewhere and Hollis was busy at the garage, she went into the latter's room, because he was the most organized and she knew where he kept items like that.

She wondered why neither of them had pictures of her mother just hanging up, but she supposed it might be too sad for them. Whatever the case, she knew that Hollis had a few boxes at the top of his closet where he kept stuff from his time in the Minutemen, and she got those down, searching through them. She had seen some of this stuff, once, when he had taken a trip down memory lane, but there was one box he had never opened, and she hadn't really thought to ask before.

Now, however, she was really curious about what he had inside of it, but first things first, she needed to look for what she came here for. He had a pretty big collection of photos and newspaper clippings, and had told her stories about everyone he pointed out to her. Hollis had some of the best stories about Sally, though she realized now that she had never really asked Eddie to tell her any. She would have to find the time to do that before she moved, maybe as a way to help smooth things over.

Selecting a rather glamorous photo of Sally that she hoped Hollis wouldn't miss too much and set it aside, repacking the box to be as much like she had found it as possible. With that out of the way, she opened the box she had never seen inside before, and was met with more pictures and a thick stack of papers. Some of the pictures didn't make sense; there was her father, dated in the early forties, and she figured it was a picture of him in the war- though why Hollis had it, she didn't know. And then there was a picture of some circus performer, and a group shot of the Minutemen that he had never shown her.

Her father and her mother were sort of embracing in it, turning to face the camera while everyone else posed. Hooded Justice stood over them, holding something she couldn't quite see, but when she saw a note on the picture saying that it was from a Christmas party, she realized it was probably mistletoe. It was one of the only pictures she had ever seen of her parents together, and she set it aside as well, before turning her attention to the papers.

After reading them, it became sort of clear what they were to her. They were some sort of journal, or memoir, and it was about Hollis' time with the Minutemen. She knew she didn't have time to read them all in detail, but she figured she could at least skim them, looking for any mention of her mother, and maybe she would even find something about her relationship with Eddie. At first, neither of them came up very much, but then she got to a part of the story that mentioned them both quite a bit, and she read it. And then she read it again.

Her eyes scanned over it again and again, but she could not make sense of the words on the page because there was no way that they could be true. She knew her father, and though she didn't know her mother, she knew that there had to have been something between them for her to have been born, and it had to be serious for Hollis to respect it enough to accept Eddie as her true father. But if that was the case, then why had he written about such a horrible thing happening between them?

She wanted it to be some kind of misunderstanding, but she knew, deep down, that there wasn't. On the page, plain as day, the words were written: _In 1940, the Comedian attempted to sexually assault Sally Jupiter_.

 


	2. Chapter 2

“In 1940, the Comedian attempted to sexually assault Sally Jupiter,” she said out loud, as if that would somehow change the meaning of the words. She read on, getting the details of it, reading how horrified Hollis was by the bruises on her mother, reading about how _that_ was why Eddie left the Minutemen when he did, and that Sally had never pressed charges, so it had never gone public. The pages she held in her hands were likely the only record of what had happened, proof that, as much as Eddie wanted to pretend it hadn't happened, Hollis could not forget.

But what did this mean? What had really happened for Laurie to have been born? The attempted sexual assault occurred in 1940, but Laurie was born nine years later. Had her mother forgiven him in that amount of time, or had she been attacked again? She didn't want to believe her father would repeat something like that, but she hadn't wanted to believe he had done it in the first place, and now she wasn't really sure of anything. He had always been particularly harsh on rapists and would-be rapists when she had been his sidekick, and now she realized that it was out of a sense of guilt.

But that didn't make up for it! Nothing made up for what he did to Sally, not even if she forgave him, because Laurie could never forgive him. Not in a million years and especially not knowing that he had kept it from her for her entire life. She was shaking with anger as she cleaned up the rest of Hollis' things, and she returned the picture of the Minutemen to the box. There was no need for a picture of her parents together now, and the picture was dated 1940.

~X~

It wasn't much later that Hollis returned home, but Laurie stayed in her room, trying to calm herself down before she talked to him about this. She was mad at him as well, because he had known and not said anything, but he might have believed he was doing the right thing, and she wanted to hear him out before she blew up on him. Confrontations went better calm, something that was hard for her considering she had a temper that could rival her father's.

And then he got home, and any attempts to keep her anger under control went out the window. She was out of her room and upon him without a second thought, shouting, “You have a lot of nerve, coming back here!” Even as she said it, she knew it didn't make much sense for her situation, but she was much too angry to care, and she charged at him to attack, her rage not allowing her to hold back.

But Eddie was bigger than her, and stronger, and he had taught her almost everything she knew about fighting, so blocking her blows and subduing her wasn't much of a problem. Soon, he had her arms pinned while she was left kicking and screaming, calling him every name in the book.

“Laurie, what the hell is going on?!” he asked, raising his voice over hers. He looked more than a little irritated, but she didn't care; she didn't care about anything he felt anymore.

“I know what you did to mom!” she screamed. “I know about...about...about how you hurt her! How you tried to rape her! How could you _do_ something like that? You're...you're disgusting! I hate you for this, I hate you!” She only stopped screaming at him because she was surprised by the fact that he was not trying to interrupt her, but he was silent, wearing a shocked expression. “Say something, you bastard!” she said at last.

“How did you...how did you find out about that?” he asked, before turning to a doorway where Hollis stood. She hadn't noticed him before, but he must have been drawn in by all the commotion. “Did you tell her?”

“Eddie, you know I wouldn't before you were ready,” he said. “But I...think I might be partially responsible for it.”

“Damn straight you are,” she snapped. “I was in his closet, looking for pictures of mom to take with me when I moved out and...and I found these _pages_ , with this _story_ on them, about how you- you-”

“Hollis, what the hell is she talkin' about?”

“I...” Hollis sighed. “There was a time when I thought about writing a book about everything, just a fun little memoir of all the times I had as a hero, but when I got started, it turned into...something else. The stories weren't as fun as I remembered, so I decided I wouldn't ever publish it, but I kept going because once I started, I wanted to get it all written down.”

“And ya just left it where Laurie could find it?”

“Well, I didn't expect her to go snooping through my closet!”

“Both of you shut up!” Laurie shouted. “Forget about that, forget about the fact that you were both _trying_ to keep this from me. How about we just focus on the fact that it happened to begin with?”

“Laurie, please,” said Eddie, “I was only...I was only sixteen, right? I know that's not an excuse-”

“Goddamn right it isn't!” she interrupted.

“But _listen_. I was young, I was a fuckin' idiot, and I did a very, very bad thing that I've spent the rest of my life regretting. Your mother an' I had a complicated relationship, but I loved her and-”

“ _That's_ how you treat a woman you love?”

“You're not listening, I told you that I-”

“I'm listening, I just know bullshit when I hear it!”

“Laurie, please, I didn't want you to find out like this,” he said, looking desperate, but she wasn't having any more of this.

“Because you didn't want me to find out at all, right?”

“That isn't-”

“What _is_ it, then?!”

“Both of you, please,” said Hollis, looking pained to watch this argument. “Laurie, I know you're upset with him, and I know how awful this must be to find out, but you need to calm down and think about things. He admits that he made a mistake. It was hard on all of us, but it's been very hard on him, and he _did_ make an effort to make it up to her. Even now, I know he still feels guilty about it, and even though that doesn't make it right, or make up for what happened, he's trying, and your mother...your mother _did_ forgive him for it. In the end, she wanted something with him, and what happened between them in the end was her choice.”

“You're taking _his_ side?” asked Laurie in disbelief. Though, she supposed he had always taken Eddie's side, considering he had kept it a secret all these years. “You're really on his side about this?!”

“It's not about sides, Laurie. It's just that...things are complicated.”

“Since when is _rape_ complicated?” She glared at both of them before turning on her heel. “I'm not going to listen to either of your excuses anymore. I'm moving in with Jon tomorrow.”

She hadn't been planning to move out for another three days, but she was almost completely packed up anyway, and when she called Jon to ask, he said it didn't matter when she did it, and that she was going to move in with him the next day all along. She was still getting used to his time bullshit, so she didn't bother commenting on that, and the next day, he appeared in her room to transport her things to their new home. Laurie did not say goodbye to Eddie or Hollis before she and Jon were transported as well.

 


	3. Chapter 3

“I just cannot _believe_ they kept this from me!” It had to be the fifth time she had vented to Jon about this, but Laurie didn't feel much better than the first time. Of course, it had been a big shock, and she doubted she would be able to calm down completely for a very long time, but she couldn't help but think that Jon's lack of emotional response wasn't helping matters much.

She had been so excited to move in with him, and felt like she was really living out a dream. After all, she had had a crush on him since childhood, and then she had had the privilege to get close to him and really fall in love with him. Now, they were not only a couple but living together, and she had expected to be a little bit happier about it. But she was not going to blame Jon for that, when she knew that her mood had been spoiled in the first place because of how terrible Eddie was, and the fact that Hollis had helped conceal it from her, and had taken his side.

She was still so mad about it that she could hardly even think, but Jon just stared back at her before saying, “You said that they thought this was best for you. Perhaps they knew how upset you would be and didn't want to bother you with the past.”

“That doesn't matter!” she said, throwing her hands up in frustration. They had been through this so many times, but Jon never seemed to understand that their intentions did not make it hurt less and did not shake her view of her family any less. She couldn't look at it in the same way he did, and she couldn't forget the anger she had felt upon finding out the truth.

But as time went on, even as she actually felt her anger fading into the background, she did not find dealing with Jon any easier. He was so distant lately, and honestly had been for a while longer than she wanted to admit. Ever since they had really begun spending a lot of time together, she had noticed this, but she didn't want to let it bother her, convincing herself that this was just the way that things were supposed to be.

Maybe it was even good for her, maybe it was because of this that she was starting to feel a little bit less angry about everything. Perhaps Jon was keeping her calm with his distant, quiet demeanor, and perhaps this really was just the way that relationships worked once you had been with someone long enough. She certainly didn't have any examples at home, and she found herself curious about how things had been between her parents once more, before she remembered the horrible thing she had learned and told herself that she was better off not knowing.

But what if things had not been that bad later? Hollis had even insisted that Sally had completely forgiven Eddie, and if that was the case, then how had their relationship been? She had been too angry to listen to him try to explain himself, but now that she had had time to cool down, she wondered if she needed to try and get the full picture. Was it finally time for her to get back into contact with them?

She hadn't spoken to either of them since moving out, and they didn't have any way of getting in touch with her. For all she knew, they were glad to have her gone, and she wouldn't be welcome back after that fight, and that was enough reason to make her not want to try to get back into contact with either of them. But, at the same time, she wouldn't know until she tried, and things would only get worse the longer they didn't hear from her, and even if they were still mad at her, she would at least know that they were going their separate ways for good.

She knew that she was also being driven to talk to them again just because of how distant Jon was with her. He wasn't much good for conversation and was spending more and more time working, and she didn't really know anybody else she could talk to her. Despite herself, she found herself missing the conversations she had with Hollis, and even the laughs she and Eddie had shared.

It was about a year after moving out that she finally swallowed her pride and called Hollis, and found out that Eddie had moved out shortly after her. Without her around, they didn't have much reason to live together, but as Laurie talked with Hollis and began to make peace, he suggested that she call her father.

It was a lot harder to get up the nerve for that, but when she finally did, Eddie sounded so happy to hear from her that it nearly broke down her resolve. She stayed strong, though, and said, “Look, I don't forgive you yet. I don't understand how she could, or how you can live with yourself after that, but I just wanted you to know that I'm not _not_ speaking to you.”

And her life went on from there. She still wasn't close with either of them, and things didn't get better with Jon, but she kept herself busy with crime fighting. Dan still tried to help her from time to time, and she soon stopped caring if it was just because Hollis put him up to it or not. He was a nice enough guy and she needed all the friends she could get, so when he wasn't busy with Rorschach, the two of them would team up, and it was nice. At the very least, it made things a lot less lonely for her.

One day, she got a call from Eddie, the one time he did not wait for her to call before telling her something. When she answered, he said, “I know ya probably don't wanna hear from me right now, cos you haven't called in a while, but I needed to tell you...war's gettin' pretty rough, and they're sendin' me over to what I can do about it.”

“So you're going to Vietnam?” she asked.

“Looks like it,” he replied. “I just wanted to...ya know, be able to say goodbye to you before I head out, so that's why I called.”

Laurie paused before she said, “I could come over, if you wanted.”

“Only if you wanna,” he said quickly. “I know things are...difficult, but...if you do want to, I'd love to see ya.”

So she went to see him before he left, even though it was incredibly weird being alone with him after all that time. He did what he could, and even took her out to dinner, and even though they didn't have much to talk about and it was awkward as hell, Laurie was glad she did it and glad that she got to see him before he went off to war. She wasn't all that worried about him, because he had handled himself just fine before, but still. Even if she was still a little mad at him over what she had figured out and even if she wasn't planning on forgiving him for it, she hoped that he would be okay.

 


	4. Chapter 4

When Jon told her that he was expecting to go to Vietnam as well, Laurie only worried for him for a moment. It wasn't as if there was anything over there that could hurt him, and the only thing she really needed to worry about was missing him, and she honestly doubted it would be much different having him that far away. She still told him she would miss him, and he replied that he would miss her as well, in the same blank tone he said everything in anymore, and then he was gone.

He could have been back in an instant, and he could have come back at any time to visit her, but she knew that he wouldn't. As long as he was doing what was expected of him, he wouldn't do something like visit her when he was at war, and even though she knew that should bother her, it didn't bother her nearly enough. Even if he visited, she was sure that it wouldn't be anything special, and he would be just as distant as always. She was beginning to wonder if she might have been wrong, and if this really wasn't how it was supposed to be.

Without Jon around to talk about things with, though, there wasn't much she could do to try to figure out her relationship, and so the only thing she could do to distract herself was put even more focus into fighting crime. Dan was working on his own more and more often, which meant that Laurie was able to get him to team up with _her_ more and more often, and she greatly appreciated the company he had to offer.

“Is something bothering you?” he asked one night, after watching her take down a would-be burglar with a bit more brutality than necessary.

“Of course not,” she lied. “What are you talking about?”  
“Well,” he said, looking a little nervous to even bring it up, “you've just seemed a little off for a while now, and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

She sighed; she should have known that Dan would figure her out eventually, but she had hoped he wouldn't. “It's just Jon,” she said at last.

“You miss him?” he asked, sounding sympathetic.

“Well...yes, but also no, and that's the problem,” she confessed. “I shouldn't even say something like that but it's just getting kind of hard, is all.” Pausing, she realized that it might not be a good idea to share such personal details of her life. “I'm sorry, I'm just rambling over here.”

“No, no, if you're upset and want to talk to somebody, I'd be happy to listen,” said Dan, offering her a warm smile. He had always been so helpful, and she couldn't help but wonder how much of that had to do with Hollis asking him to be, and how much had to do with how he felt about her. She knew that it was only her loneliness making her think such things, but she still couldn't help herself. Was there more to Dan's friendliness than met the eye?

Whatever the case, she also couldn't help opening up a bit more, and she said, “He and I have been distant lately, is all, and having him gone made me realize that, even when he's here, he's not really here. If that makes any sense at all.”

“No, that makes perfect sense.” He looked troubled as he spoke. “You deserve better than that, and I'm sorry that you're having trouble with him. I wish there was something I could do to help.”

“It's just nice having someone to talk to,” she replied, and the way Dan smiled at her made her heart skip a beat. He really was so nice to her, and had become one of the closest people to her over time. If she had to name a best friend, it would probably be him, and now he was here for her when she had nobody else, able to talk with her about things she had never been able to talk to Jon about.

So when he offered to let her come over some time, whenever she wanted to talk, she said the sooner the better, and when he said she could come home with him after patrol, she did. And she had every intention of talking with him, and they did, for quite some time, but when there was a lull in conversation and she caught the way he was looking at her, she went for a kiss, and he didn't resist her, and it was one of the best nights she could recall having in a very long time.

~X~

Naturally, she felt guilty as hell the next morning, knowing that she had cheated on Jon like that, but seeing Dan sleeping beside her calmed her down a little bit. He looked so peaceful and so cute, and she realized in that moment just how much she had come to like him without even noticing. _This_ was how it was supposed to be; two people who cared about each other and wanted the best for each other, two people who could talk and who _could_ just be friends, but who could be much more just as easily. If she were going to be with anyone, it should be someone like him.

But still, when he woke up and began to apologize profusely for the night before and putting her in such a position, all she told him was, “I need to wait until Jon gets back before we can do anything about this. We can't do something like this until I figure things out with him, so do you think you can wait a little bit?”

Dan nodded and said, “I understand, and yeah, I'll wait. And...and if you decide you don't want to leave him, and that this was nothing but a mistake...I'll understand that too.”

~X~

They didn't see each other again while she waited for Jon to return. Laurie was doing what she could to avoid him, but she knew that he had to be trying to avoid her too, and she felt bad about that, but she knew it was for the best. As long as she couldn't say what was going to happen between them and as long as she couldn't say anything to Jon, she didn't need to tempt herself or allow herself to be too close to Dan.

But, even though she still felt a little conflicted, the more time she spent thinking about it, the less conflicted she became. She had wanted to be with Jon for so long that she had been willing to put up with anything and turn a blind eye to the things that she didn't like, but she wasn't stupid. He hadn't been treating her right for a long time, and even if she talked to him, she couldn't see things getting any better.

If anything, she could tell that he was only going to become more distant. He wasn't really human anymore, and she knew this, and that had been part of the appeal when she hadn't really known him and it had been more along the lines of a celebrity crush, but now she was beginning to see what a problem that was. She could see that the distance between them couldn't be bridged, and she remembered the way he had tossed Janey Slater aside for her. How long before he found someone more interesting? How long before she was the one tossed aside?

In the end, someone human seemed much more appealing, and someone like Dan seemed much more appealing. Even though she wasn't entirely sure what she should do about that- she knew that jumping from one relationship to the next could be bad for the both of them, and that it could all turn out to be rebounding- she at least knew that she did not want to be with Jon anymore, and that when he returned, she was going to break things off with him.

 


	5. Chapter 5

Jon didn't seem fazed when she broke up with him, and she got angry and yelled a lot about how he never cared, and he sat there and took it until she stormed out. It wasn't until later that she realized he must have known all along that she would break up with him when he got home, and she wondered if that had anything to do with his distant behavior, and how long his behavior had been affected by his knowledge, but thinking about that had always given her a headache, and it really was for the best that she was leaving him.

Eddie was surprised to see her showing up so suddenly while he was still settling back in, but of course he was pleased, unaware that she was not just coming to visit him after his return to the states. Once he really saw the look on her face, however, he was quick to ask her what was wrong.

“I left Jon,” she said, raising a hand to stop him before he could try to comfort her. They both knew he was no good at that. “I'm fine, I just...need some time to think, and somewhere to stay. I would have asked Hollis, but I don't want to bother him, and I know you're hardly ever here anyway...”

“Yeah, I understand,” he said. “Won't even notice me when I'm here half the time, and o only gotta deal with me when you want to. I'm glad...I'm glad ya came here. If you need any help moving your stuff...”

“I think Jon will help me with that, once I cool off and go back to talk to him again,” she replied. “And I think it'll be a lot easier on all of us if he does.” The two of them laughed together, for the first time in a long time.

~X~

“Everyone makes mistakes, Laurie.” Hollis patted her back as she cried into his shoulder. She had gone to see him to explain her situation, but she had ended up getting upset again. He offered plenty of comfort, but his words applied to more than just her situation.

“Kinda like my dad?” she asked.

He blinked in surprise. “I wouldn't compare your mistakes to one like _that_. There really isn't any comparison at all, actually...”

“I know that, but...I'm still trying to sort out how I feel about all of that. He and I are made up, and I'm living with him and all, but...how do I _forgive_ him?”

“You might never be able to,” Hollis replied. “Never completely, at least. Heaven knows it took me a long time to be able to see beyond that with him. He understands why you feel the way you do, even if it hurts him, and he's going to understand if you never really forgive him for it. I doubt he'll ever forgive himself.”

“But everyone makes mistakes,” she said. “Even if some of them are way bigger than others.” It wasn't much, but she felt another step closer to forgiving Eddie, and that had to count for something.

~X~

Her mother had loved Eddie at some point, despite everything, and Laurie knew that you really couldn't help who you fell in love with. Was that why her mother had fallen for him, or had he really not been that bad? And what about her brief marriage to Larry, and the fact that they had apparently not been happy? Had her mother ever loved him, and why had she stayed with him if she hadn't?

Of course, Laurie hadn't really had strong feelings for Jon for a long time, but she'd stuck it out anyway. Maybe her mother had done the same thing, and maybe she would have eventually realized she needed to get out just like Laurie had. Would she have gone back to Eddie then? Or maybe she would finally returned Hollis' feelings, maybe his unrequited love would have paid off in the end.

Really, she knew so little about her mother's situation with Hollis. Had Sally ever even known about his feelings? And thinking about the first Nite Owl made her think about the second, and even if she didn't know how her mother felt about Hollis, she knew how she felt about Dan, and she knew that she had made him wait for too long. She had wanted to take some time for herself after leaving Jon, just to make sure that she knew what she was doing, but her feelings for Dan had not faded in the slightest.

It was time for her to go to him and tell him this, and see if he still felt the same way about her. She hoped that he did, but she thought to herself that she wouldn't blame him if he got tired of waiting for her. He seemed pleased enough when she called ahead of time and invited her over, but she couldn't imagine Dan being impolite over anything, so she didn't allow herself to get her hopes up.

They made small talk for only a few minutes before she got around to what she actually wanted to talk about. “I did break up with Jon when he got back,” she said.

“I'm sorry-”

“Don't be. You know I wasn't exactly happy, and I needed to do it for a long time,” she said. “But...I just wanted to know if you still...if what happened between us...you know, what did it mean to you?”

“Laurie, I've had feelings for you practically since we met,” said Dan with a small chuckle. “That meant the world to me, and even though I felt kind of guilty, putting you in a position like that when you were still with Jon, I couldn't help but be so happy to have a chance like that with you.”

“I care a lot about you,” she confessed. “You've always been such a good friend, but I'd really like it if we could be more. If you think you'd like to, anyway.”

“I'd more than like to and you know that,” he replied. “Like I said, I've wanted this for a long time. I'm just glad we had the chance to get this close.”

She'd only been back to living with Eddie for a short time, but already, she was incredibly relieved that he wasn't home when she came back the next morning, after spending the night with Dan. It wasn't as if she had anything to feel guilty about; she was in adult and she'd long since let her father know that he couldn't make her decisions for her, but she doubted she would ever really get over that.

Thinking about Eddie's reaction made her wonder about what Hollis would think of it. Naturally, he liked Dan, but he might still be a little protective of her anyway. She was an adult, sure, but some things likely wouldn't change, and even though it was frustrating, and even though her relationship with her fathers was complicated, but she didn't think she would trade it.

There were some things she wished she could do without and things she wished hadn't happened, and there were things that she might have changed, but she knew that she would be a different person had she not had all of her experiences, and she was so happy as she was that she wasn't sure if she'd like whoever she would be if things had been different. Laurie was happy with the woman she had grown up to be, and she was happy to know that, even if things got complicated or strained, her fathers were happy with her as well.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao the end


End file.
